person Charles Leggett, two poems

Charles Leggett is a professional actor based in Seattle, WA. His poetry has been published in the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, most recently in 2018 by Twyckenham Notes. His long poem “Premature Tombeau for John Ashbery” was an e-chapbook in the Barnwood Press “Great Find” series.

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PELTIER ROAD

—After Stéphane Mallarmé’s “Apparition”

All the bells are ringing or have rung.
I heard them ringing in your mother’s voice
The clapper only, still, is punctual.

I thought I sensed the boyhood superhero
Who, cordial and so unaffected, helped
In dreams to banish fear under a close

And brass-hued fog he’s rolling through the years
Along these lanes, the moon-sung valley cows
Regardful, still, between their shudderings.

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PHOTOGRAPH OFMALENCÓNSTATUE, THE STARGAZERWHOSE BINOCULARS HAVE FUSED WITH HIS FACE

The azure thins, bleeds to blood
orange cuddling couple in
silhouette boundaries blurred
of clouds a bird drifting down

Allons three cheers for flawless
posture peerless votary
let fall what thee befuddles
what muddles still that starry